Read a sample chapter from Time Coda:

It is 2061 CE. Halley's Comet has struck Earth and begun a mass extinction. On the planet Mars, colonies have been established by various entities, countries, and privet corporations. Our sample chapter involves some of the exiles from Earth.

10

Meanwhile Back on Mars 

The Footsteps to Mars Project’s Mars colony is located in the vast, low-lying Martian plain called Hellas Planitia. Hellas Planitia in turn is located within the Hellas basin, one of the largest impact craters on Mars and probably the third or fourth largest in the Solar System. The crater has a diameter of roughly 1,400 miles, a depth of 23,465 feet, and an atmospheric pressure of between 0.09 and 0.18 psi (compared to Earth’s surface pressure of 14.7 psi), about 3 percent greater than most of the rest of the planet. There are three smaller craters in the eastern portion of the plain which contain glaciers of ancient ice buried deep beneath layers of dirt and rock These conditions suggested to the early planners of the Footsteps to Mars Project that Hellas Planitia would be an ideal staging area for a Martian colony.

Years before the first humans walked on the surface of Mars, robot rovers had assembled modular habitats, green houses, atmospheric and water generating plants, and had explored in every direction, their sensors probing for water and minerals for sustaining life. Lava tubes extending from the Hadriacus Mons complex to the northeast were charted for possible future excavation. On the northwestern Hellas basin floor is a region of geological features of flat cells of similar size and shape resembling a honeycomb. Here the rovers searched for salt deposits likely left after the evaporation or the sinking of ancient lakes.

Kateri Awani is one of the chosen ones who live here at Hellas Colony Module Number 4. Before her space flight to Mars she worked as a computer programmer for a development company in Pittsburgh called Persistent Visions Incorporated, a key supplier of intellectual property for Footsteps to Mars. She had improperly entered her own data and that of her boyfriend, Zeke Demeter, into the prime database the project used for selecting prospective Martian colonists. She had expected to spend her new life here on Mars accompanied by Zeke, but it was not to be.

Kateri’s supervisor, Yusuf Chobin, himself enamored with Kateri, had sabotaged Zeke’s chances as an astronaut. Zeke was left on Earth as Kateri was rocketed to the moon base where the Martian exploration ship waited to carry the colonists to the Martian moon Deimos (named after the Roman god of dread), then down to the Hellas plain on Mars. Once she learned of Chobin’s betrayal, Kateri curtailed what was becoming a budding romance with the man.

Her regret at losing Zeke to the doomed planet Earth kept her in self-ordained isolation for weeks at Colony Module Number 4 until authorities intervened; every colonist was expected to work toward the good of the colony and, as nearly everyone was devastated at the ongoing destruction of Earth and the loss of loved ones, Kateri could not be allowed to be an exception to the rule. Thus she has been conscripted into the exploration team which now journeys in a personnel rover to examine the Honeycomb Terrain.

The rover, nicknamed “Elvis” for no apparent reason other than its tendency to gyrate and sway as it makes its way across the rough Martian landscape, is filled to compacity with scientists and support persons, six in all. Besides Kateri Awani, who is responsible for communications and the maintenance of the onboard computer system, the crew includes Matthew Korhonen, an expert in mining, Kjeld Svetlana, a geologist and oceanographer formerly in the employ of Exxon Mobile when that company was migrating from fossil fuels to wave energy power, Netanyahu Iosaphat, mathematician and scholar who is the expedition leader, Gaios Severin, photographer, and Helena Tiedemann, a former registered nurse.

Elvis is shaking and rocking as it rolls across the Alpheus Colles central plateau toward the Honeycomb Terrain. Here over a period of many millennia, wind erosion has uncovered long, canal‐like depressions, the tracks of Martian dust-devils, a pattern so prevalent that this is known as the Banded Terrain. It is the wrinkled brough of Hellas Planitia’s countenance. Kjeld Svetlana describes for the crew the unique formations they will be encountering once they have crossed beyond this striated region:

“We will be seeing an assembly of cell‐like depressions, none occurring individually but always edge-to-edge with other cells. They are mostly elliptical and generally of the same size, roughly 45 by 20 feet across and some nearly 600 feet deep. The architecture of these features seems to be unique to the Martian landscape.”

“What could have formed them?” asked Helena Tiedemann. “If they are so unique?”

“Probably salt diapirism…evaporatic salt deposits forced down into the surrounding rocks by the upward movement of some other material, perhaps lava or ice. We have noted similar salt‐withdrawal basins in the southern Sigsbee nappe, in the Gulf of Mexico on Earth.”

“So, we are looking for salt?” asks Kateri.

“Or other minerals. And to see to the practicality of mining it.”

“There may be glacial ice underneath the strata as well,” adds Matthew Korhonen.

“I would doubt that, Matt,” says Svetlana. “If the salt diapirism theory is correct, the water rising to the surface would have evaporated long ago.”

Helena Tiedemann is looking out of the view port at the rolling dunes of the Banded Terrain. She nudges Kateri. “Enough science, hun? Look at the view,” she says.

“Lovely,” Kateri answers. “Reminds me of the New Mexico Bad Lands. Very nostalgic.” Her sarcasm is lost on Helena. Gaios Severin, the photographer, however chuckles, then begins taking pictures with a digital camera.

“Do you know why they called it ‘taking pictures’?” he asks, not waiting for an answer. “When explorers met indigenous peoples living in remote regions who had no contact with so-called civilization, they would try to photograph them, but the natives would be scared of the cameras which they believed, by ‘taking’ an image of them would rob them of their souls.”

“That’s interesting,” says Kateri. “I can understand that feeling.”

“I’ve always thought,” continues Severin, “that ‘making’ a photograph freezes time. It is sort of like slicing off a fragment of time and saving it as a souvenir. We can’t travel back in time, but we can collect images that never change temporally. That’s what I love about photography.” Little did Severin know that he was wrong about time travel, but that’s a different chapter.

 “We are approaching our destination,” says Netanyahu Iosaphat, the expedition leader. “Get you helmets ready. I will take Korhonen, and Svetlana on the initial exploration. The others will remain in the rover. Kateri, I want you to test the microwave communications systems between our suits.”

“Oh, crap,” says Severin. “I want to get some good shots of the honeycombs.”

“All in good time, Severin. You’ll get your turn.”

“By the way,” Kateri says to Severin, “why do they call it ‘shooting pictures’?”

They have come to a full stop within yards of the nearest honeycomb cell, next to a ridge which rises above the height of the rover. Iosaphat, Korhonen, and Svetlana are suited up and have just exited the rover. Kateri connects to Isoaphat’s suit’s radio. She says, “Netanyahu, I’m getting a weird signal. It isn’t from Mars colony or from anyone in our crew. I think we aren’t alone out here!”

Gaios Severin, the photographer, now makes an executive decision although he is not an executive on this mission, merely a hired hand: he decides to join the others outside. He grabs his camera and makes for the airlock. “Whatever it is,” he says to Helena and Kateri, “I’m going to get a picture of it!”

The gravity of Mars is 38% that of Earth so Iosaphat scrambles up the ridge easily, gesturing for the others to wait below. He peers over the top and sees three space-suited figures on the other side, and a hovercraft with the red logo of Russia on it. He ducks back before the Russians can see him.

“Kateri,” he radios back, “call Mars colony base command and report that the Russians are here at this location. Request directives for an appropriate response, if any.” He slides back down the ridge. Severin has just come from the rover. The four will wait before proceeding with their own examination of the honeycomb crater.

“What did you see?” Severin asks Iosaphat over suit-to-suit communication. “Little green men?”

“Worse,” he answers. “Big red Russians. And what are you doing out here?” Severin raises his camera up and takes a picture as if in answer to the question.

Kateri is having trouble raising the home base on the microwave radio. She is worried. The problem with Russians is that back on Earth, before the comet collided, relations between the United States and Russian were not just strained but downright precarious. Too much Russian interference in US politics for too many years, too many economic sanctions against them by the States, too many skirmishes with each other’s allies in the Middle East. Now on Mars there is resentment and noncooperation between the respective colonies of the two former adversaries.

They wait. Everything seems in limbo, a hesitation of cosmic forces, a secession of time itself. Suddenly the Russian hovercraft rises above the top of the ridge and hangs in the sky just over the rover. It casts a dark shadow on the rover and the four that stand on the surface next to it. Kateri contacts Iosaphat again telling him that she can’t raise home base. “Please get back into the rover,” she pleads. Even as she says this, gunfire comes from the hovercraft. Iosaphat goes down. Severin is bending over Iosaphat, trying to see how badly the man is hit, when a bullet smashes through his helmet, ending his life. Korhonen, and Svetlana run for the rover; Korhonen is hit and falls. Svetlana manages to make it to the open airlock as bullets begin hitting the side of the rover. A jump and he is in. The hovercraft lifts higher, then glides away from the scene. It has all happened too quickly to make note of the identifying numbers on the hovercraft.

There is blood seeping from the suits of the two downed men and Severin’s brains are leaking from his helmet. Inside, Svetlana is in shock and sits against the side of the cabin, unable to take command of the rover. It is up to Helena and Kateri to decide their next move.

“We should get those men into the rover,” says Helena. “Dead or alive. Svetlana can’t help us now. He’s stunned.”

“You want to go outside?” says Kateri. “The Russians…”

“The Russians are gone. We can’t get the colony on the radio. It’s up to us to drag them in. You come with me. I can’t do it by myself.”

Kateri is not heartless, but she would just as soon leave the men bleeding into the Martian sand and get out of there. They couldn’t still be alive. But she agrees and the two women, fully suited, pass through the air lock into the Martian atmosphere. Kateri’s assumption proves true: the men are dead. The air has leaked from their suits and they look shriveled and twisted like roadkill on a highway. One by one the women pull the men into the rover. Svetlana is hunched up in a corner gripping his knees, incoherent and vacant-eyed.

“You know how to drive this thing?” Kateri askes Helena.

“I think so, maybe. Gotta try, anyway. It isn’t going to drive itself.”

Helena is able, after a few tries, to turn the rover around and head back toward Hellas Colony. But Elvis is struggling, advancing in small jerks. They make about two hundred yards before Elvis grinds to a halt. No matter what Helena tries she cannot coax Elvis one inch further. “Something must have been hit by bullets,” she says. “There is no power to the treads.” Even the cabin lights are dimming. If they have lost battery power they are in deep trouble.

“Life support depends on the batteries,” says Kateri. “It doesn’t require the amps that the treads need, but…”

“You’re the tech, Kateri. You go outside and take a look. Maybe it is something you can fix or at least jury-rig enough to get us back.”

“See what you can do for Svetlana while I’m out there, will you?” says Kateri. “You’re the medic.” Kateri attaches her helmet to her suit and moves toward the airlock.

Women, she thinks! We just can’t coexist without competition and quibbling. At least we function well under stress, unlike men. Kateri studies Svetlana for a few seconds before exiting the rover; he doesn’t look as if he is recovering very quickly. Then she sees it: a trickle of blood has run down from Svetlana’s shoulder and is forming a small pool of red stuff on the floor behind him.

“Helena! Come here and look at Kjeld. I think he was wounded!”

Helena unzips Svetlana’s suit. “He’s got a shoulder wound,” she says. “I can probably stop the bleeding, but we have to get him back to base, to hospital. There’s no exit wound which means the bullet is still inside. He needs surgery!”

“I’m going,” says Kateri. “I’ll let you know what I find outside.”

What she finds is that the Russians have successfully disabled the rover. Solar panels are smashed and irreparable. Most of the batteries have ruptured, spilling fluids onto the red Martian dust. Only one battery remains intact―barely enough power for life support and certainly not enough to get Elvis back to base. There is nothing she can do. She returns to give Helena the bad news.

“There is only one thing I can think we can do,” Kateri says, “and that is to start walking. Maybe we can get into range where our suit radios will work to contact base.”

“That’s a bit of a stretch,” says Helena. “We won’t have enough air to last for that long of a trek. And what about Svetana? We can’t carry him.”

“We can take the life support packs from the suits of the others…they won’t be needing them now. We’ll have to leave Kjeld. The only hope is to get help. Someone to come.”

“You sure are a cool one. I won’t leave him here to die when I know he would survive with proper treatment.”

“So, remove the bullet. You’re a nurse. There is a scalpel in the first aid kit, isn’t there? Patch him up and we’ll support him between us as we walk.”

“We really can’t raise Hellas Colony on the rover radio?”

“No. The antenna is gone. I didn’t see it along the route we took from the honeycombs. I don’t know where it is.”

“Can’t you rig something up?”

“Okay, I’ll try. You start cutting on Kjeld and I’ll jury-rig an antenna. I doubt there is enough juice left in that single battery, though.”

There is a scalpel in the first aid kit. There is not, however, any anesthetic. Helena smashes most of a bottle of aspirin into a paste with some water and pushes it into Svetana’s mouth. “This may sting a little,” she tells him. As she probes with the scalpel, Svetana jerks with the pain. “Try to keep still,” she warns. “I don’t want to cut an artery.” Helena has witnessed many a surgery in her time and assisted some of the finest surgeons on the old planet. But this…

Outside of the rover Kateri breaks the metal frame from one of the smashed solar panels, removing a long piece that might serve as an antenna. Now where to attach it? She remembers seeing a long whip-like antenna on the port side…or was it on the starboard side? She searches and at last finds the stub of the old antenna. She binds this new whip of metal to the stub using some wiring pulled from the wreckage of the solar paneling system. Will it work?

“I’m getting a little static,” she says, once back inside and powering up the radio. “But that’s all.”

The use of the last battery to power the radio has resulted in the loss of the cabin lighting. “Damnit!” calls Helena. “Turn that off! I need the light to try to sew up his shoulder.”

She has removed the bullet but made a mess of his shoulder―it looked like a piece of poorly butchered meat that some incompetent hunter had left behind. She has done the best she could, and what the man needs now is bed rest, not a hike across the Martian Banded Terrain. “We can’t move him,” she tells Kateri.

“I have an idea,” Kateri says. “There is a utility module on this rover, isn’t there?”

The utility module in question is a small cart used to transport rock samples too heavy to lift back to the rover during expeditions such as this one. It may support the weight of the man, but its battery will not last for long considering the distance they must travel. Kateri suggests using the last rover battery as a substitute for the module’s small one. They drag the utility module from the storage area and look at it.

“Do you think this motor can handle the kind of amps the other battery puts out?” asks Helena.

“It will have to. Once we remove the battery from Elvis our life support will be gone.”

The utility module has been positioned near the rear of the rover where the solar assembly is, the better to transfer the battery, which is heavy. The battery is tested and the module responds with a short jerk―it works! Already the extra life support packs and the remaining foodstuffs have been placed in the module. Removing these from the dead men had been a gruesome task, but necessity trumped horror. And now the women carry Svetana out of the rover and place him in the module as comfortably as possible considering the bulk of the other items. The hole in the shoulder of his suit has been repaired with duct tape―always an essential item in Martian exploration. The module complains as they fire it up, but it moves.

It is slow going. The utility module is steered with a remote device that takes a little getting use to. Kateri is the captain of this ship of fools, nearly capsizing the module as it advances over the first of the sand ridges in their path. She is a quick learner and manages to stay in control.

“I’m glad I played all those video games back in the day,” she says.

The ridges of the Banded Terrain they must cross are nether parallel nor at right angles to the direction in which they are heading. They learn to follow the valleys for a time then to cross the ridges diagonally. The Martian day is fading. Soon Phobos and Deimos will be rising. Perhaps they should have remained with the crippled rover, waited for someone to come looking for them. If that someone did come, could they signal them from their position on the landscape?

Off in the distance, someone was looking for them. It was a hovercraft with the red logo of Russia emblazoned on it. And it was just a few ridges away.